Aural Aggravation

Christopher Nosnibor

For the past few years, labels and PR people have been complaining that it’s become incredibly difficult to score reviews, especially for new or lesser-known acts, and that the issue is only getting worse. I have a lot of sympathy. They have a job to do, and bands want to be heard and to reach an audience. Not that I expect any sympathy, but receive more email submissions than I can even read, let alone listen to.

It does seem that we’ve gone beyond saturation point when it comes to new music. As was recently reported, there was more new music released in any single given day in 2024 than during the entirety of 1989. This means that now, more than ever, it’s hard to make it as an artist, or to simply be heard.

Some dates are conspicuously and overwhelmingly choc-full of new releases: Fridays are always packed, but some more than others, and releases for today – Friday 7th February – have pretty much broken my inbox – so, while it’s not something I tend to make a habit of, I’m going for a twofer here.

There are clear parallels in the careers of Lori and Chess – both hailing from Kent, and both breaking out in the mid-2010s fronting rock bands (Weekend Recovery and Salvation Jayne respectively) with accessible leanings and substantial audience potential, and both having suffered – and spoken on – the difficulties facing women in rock, and now both pursuing solo careers, albeit under quite different circumstances. And both are now showcasing very different, and more electronic-led pop sounds.

Lori – Deeper

Criminal Records – 7th February 2025

‘Deeper’ is pitched as a ‘hyperpop’ song, and it really is incredibly Hi-NRG, its trilling synths and thumping beat harking back to turn of the millennium dance, but overlayed with heavily processed, autotuned vocals and a shedloads of strong-like layers and sampled segments for good measure. But for all of its uptempo bounce and ‘woah-oah-oah-oooh’ hooks, it’s lyrically pretty dark:

You lie about me, cry wolf about me

Making shit up to fill your thrill.

Say it’s all in my head that you wished I was dead

But you did, over again

It’s certainly become more ‘acceptable’ to touch on dark topics in pop music again – listen to the lyrics of a lot of 70s and 80s hits, and they’re pretty bleak: Hot Chocolate’s ‘Emma’ is about a failed actress who commits suicide, while ‘Every Breath You Take’ by The Police is about stalking, from the stalker’s perspective, no less. We seemed to then have a spell where commercial pop was rarely dark, and much of it lacked much lyrical substance at all. Of course, there were always exceptions, and always things interesting happening on the fringes.

Lori is clearly not a household name, but pitched as being for fans of Charli XCX, Slayyyter, and Sabrina Carpenter this is equally clearly a stab at the commercial end of the market.

(Click image to link to audio)

Chess Smith – Bounce Back

7th February 2025

Chess gave us an early taste of her work as a solo artist back in 2017 with ‘Queen of the High Held Head Walk’, which was very much a pop song, so in this context, ‘Bounce Back’ isn’t a complete surprise, and in context, nor is the fact that this is explicitly self-referential, as much a statement that we should listen up and note that she’s BACK! as it is simply a new single after some time away. I mean, the title speaks for itself. ‘Bounce Back’ is slick and soulful, it’s immaculately produced and absolutely ready for radio, TV trailers, commercials, you name it. It sounds like a hit.

(Click image to link to audio)

Both singles, in a previous time – and, one assumes, major-label backing – would be guaranteed to be huge. Now – again, with major-label backing and R1 airplay every hour or so – they still probably would be. But herein lies a multifaceted problem: while the majors are pumping all the promotion into their flavours of the month, it’s hard for other acts to make so much as a ripple in that mainstream market. But equally, by making music which is competing in an already overcrowded market, where there are so many similar offerings – so many to the point that everything starts to sound alike whether it really does or not, with its slick production, processed vocals, etc., etc., it’s very hard to grab listeners.

But who knows? There is always a chance, after all.